The secret to getting your emails opened… your Subject Line!

According to The Radicati Group Inc., a person receives an average of 121 emails per day and spends only 10 seconds reading brand emails (Statista). How can your brand have an optimal and consistent email open rate from your subscribers with that much competition? The key is a good subject line; this is what will determine if your subscribers open your email, just scroll by it, or send it to their trash. Here are 8 tips that will help you increase your open rates.

1. Be Short, Concise, and Clear

Based on a survey conducted by Fluent Co., 67% of the respondents answered that they prefer to check their email on their smartphone. On a mobile device, only 43 characters can be seen on a subject line, therefore, the shorter, the better. Make sure to send a clear and intriguing message that drives your subject home before you lose the attention span of the reader.

2. Take Advantage of the Preview

The email preview text, or the pre-header, is the text that is visible in most emails below the sender and subject line. It introduces the content of the message. Take advantage of this space to grab the reader’s attention and inform them of the main point of the message. Doing so can drastically increase email open rates.

3. Use Numbers to Grab Attention

People are visual and because of that, they pay more attention to numbers over words; it gives them a sense of organization and logical order. Which example below do you think is more effective?

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4. Use Power Words

Power words can be used to provoke an emotional and psychological response in the subscriber and using this tactic makes it more likely for readers to open your email. One example is using words that might cause FOMO (fear of missing out), such as “be the first!”, “are you going to miss this?”, “Limited time / items!”, “just today!”… all of these will trigger the recipients’ curiosity. A second example of using power words for your benefit is to infer that you have the ultimate advice, product, or promotion for your readers…by using terms such as “the biggest sale”, “the fastest way to”, or “the easiest way to”.

5. No Caps

Avoid using all capital letters to get the recipient’s attention, this can be seen as aggressive, and it can get your emails flagged or marked as spam.

6. Emojis

When using emojis make sure they are relevant and consistent with your message, easily understood, and don’t take away from the message by drawing too much attention. ????????????

7. Personalize

People like to feel special! Personalization gives more personality to your brand, making readers feel like it is more accessible and more unique to their wants and needs. In addition, Experian reports personalized emails have 41% more unique click-through rates.

8. Define the Vibe you Want to Express & Stay Consistent

There are different subject line styles that you can use when sending out emails: funny and catchy, inquisitive, serious and direct, problem-solver, and trendy. Make sure the style compliments your brand voice, and is consistent between your subject line and email content. Consistency matters!